solentlife

Reduced product line ....

Sale and Deal of the Week items not in stock

Website that sits on the rotating dandelion

Totally frustrating website now ...

Banggood is toppling HK of the top of the tree for products and prices ...

Panther

I bought some batteries yesterday. First order for over a year. I damn near gave up because of the darn pop-ups that appear over the top of everything you are trying to read.
It was a real chore finding what I wanted.
The ONLY reason I carried on was because I wanted to use up my $12 credit that has been sitting there forever.
Pain that I don't need right now. At least I don't have to shop there again.

Don Sims

The latest version of the HK website does stink. Even with ad and popup blockers it drives me crazy trying to navigate it.

Don Sims

Problem with BG is they wait a week or so to say something is outof stock then don't give a date when they will have it back. Been waiting on a quad for over a month.

LJE4357

On August 22 I purchased a HK Beachcraft Baron Twin for $327.31. I received it on the 27th, That's 6 days. Shipping was free. Today I seen the price dropped to $261.30. I chatted with them online. I told them how much I paid. They tell me if it was no more than 7 days I would get back the difference. They asked for the shipping date and the day Paypal paid them, and the day I got. Then they tell me it's longer than 7 days. Unless they use a different type of Math, I should get back $66.01. That's a big difference.

Turbojoe

I don't even look at Hobby King anymore. And Bang You Good? Not a chance in HELL! I've ordered from them exactly three times in the last 3-5 years or so. Each time no less than 5 weeks waiting for delivery of junk that went immediately into the garbage. No thank you! I can't believe how much I miss Heads Up R/C. I could get the GOOD low cost Chinese products from them. Not the crap that HK and Bang You Good pushes just to make a profit and quality be damned. Now with HURC gone I'm so glad that I stocked up when I could still work to the point of having my own personal LHS and can support my hobby for several years without buying online. I'm ALWAYS looking for good deals though.

Joe

solentlife

I have the Soloshot Camera system Optic 25.

I paid over $700 incl customs on a significant pre-order sales .... it then over 2 years before I received the unit.

Less than a year later - they are selling the same for under $400 ..... I sent a message and also posted on their FB page about it ... their reply ignored the subject and just went into their usual sales blurb.

solentlife

BG now has one of the widest ranges of Multi Rotor motors and ESC / Flight controllers ......... for anyone into Parkflyers and FPV ... BG is fast leading the market.

Turbojoe

I couldn't possibly care any less about multi rotor/drones etc. regardless of price. Bang You Good can own that market 100% for all I care. The rest of their crap is just that. Crap!

Joe

Panther

Hobby Kings AfterShip tracking just does not work for me. If I paste the tracking number into Australia Posts tracking then it works perfectly.

Turbojoe

Being in OZ you probably get your orders in several few days vs a few weeks to the USA. Most times I've ordered from HK "USA warehouse" it still ends up coming on the rowboat from China......

Joe

Panther

I never buy anything that hasn't been on the market for some time and that is the reason. They rely on buyers wanting to be 'first' to own a new product. When sales levels fall below par they have to reduce prices.
There are a lot of companies that fund development by offering all sorts of promises to prospective clients and sadly some of them don't even make it to market. Obviously they just do not have enough financial security or expertise behind them to begin projects in the first place. It amazes me how many people take up their 'offers'

Panther

Gee, that was a quick reply TJ. LOL
Yes. Less than a week. If I order on a Sunday I usually have it by Thursday or Friday.
However, lately I have had to order from Banggood as HK doesn't have some products. My last order was free shipping and I had it in 7 days. Ordered on Thursday and had it in my hand next Thursday. This was a wifi module.
I don't normally buy from Hobby King if it has to come from the Global Warehouse although times have improved there as well. Usually around 10 days max.
PS.
I ordered some props on the 28th. Tracking says I will have them on Monday morning. Bloody weekends slow things down. LOL No post here on Saturdays...

Turbojoe

Yeah, I happened to be working on a few photo changes when the post showed. Happy you get your stuff so fast. Not so fast here to the states if it comes from China...

Joe

Turbojoe

I bought almost all of the closeout BEAM 450 Heli parts from RC Bits there in Australia several years back.16 pounds/7.26 kg worth! Three separate purchases. Each took over two weeks to get here and was $25.00 shipping for each package but that was OK for the savings involved. Each shipment took over a week but I now have a lifetime supply of BEAM 450 heli parts! Hell, I could be the USA supplier of BEAM 450 parts.......Amazing people at RC Bits and faster shipping even for heavy packages than for a tiny motor from Hobby King.......

Joe

solentlife

Sorry maybe I was not so clear ... ignore the Multi-Rotor in the listings titles ... the MR / FPV part of the hobby is driving development of smaller, lighter but more powerful motors. Not only that - but prices at levels we can 'afford' !
So many motors are out there now that rival the older accepted motors we've used for years on pushers / parkjets etc. such as the 2826 2200kv that is seen so often.

As to vendors such as BG selling crap ... forgive me for saying that the products they sell - most are available via many other vendors - possibly different label but same product from quite often same factory.

Too often a product receives a crap label in a post somewhere ... when you find out what the poster did - its no wonder the product threw its hand in ...

Finally - WE the consumer have created the market we now have to deal in. We want cheap prices, but good quality. This has created a manufacturing cult where scantlings of products are pared to the absolute closest possible. Keeping costs down and if the product is not 'pushed' will survive a reasonable time.

LJE4357

There is an interesting issue that's starting today, and were ALL affected by it. It's called " TARIFFS" Starting today 9/1, Our so called President has dumped it on us. Prices are going to go up " Maybe" That depends on how much margin the Manufactures have. Be interesting to see if the price goes back up soon on that Beach Barron I bought for HK. At $261, I'm ordering another one. I couldn't scratch build one for that price, even using my own retracts I make. I just found out that the Barron is out of stock in the US warehouse. Now I know why they dropped the price. It ships from China. The shipping is over $300. Guess I'm not ordering the second one after all. I think I'll use the one I have as a plug and make a new mold. After all in 2014 they copied the retracts I made. I guess I would call that " Getting Even"

solentlife

Luckily the Rest of the World is not as dumb as some and understands the long term chaos of tariffs. An initial advantage soons turns into escalating high street prices and reduction of choice.

Panther

Our price for the Barron is $534.34 Au BUT free shipping. Only country not eligible for free shipping is USA.
https://hobbyking.com/en_us/h-king-b...-retracts.html
I was looking at that plane a few days ago but just a bit pricey for me at the moment. In stock in Aus.

Panther

I followed solentlifes post prior to him buying the soloshot and it was a real scam. He eventually got it and had nothing but trouble trying to get it to work properly. It sort of works now but leaves a heck of a lot to be desired. The idea is good. It just doesn't work as claimed.

solentlife

I complained so much about the battery life failing - they sent me a complete replacement set and told me to keep the old. The second one is just the same ....

BUT there are times it does a pretty good job ... and having two sets - I managed to keep banging away at first to get it working again. But I now have a 2S and BEC hanging of the side of each to get reasonable recording time out of them.

The main problem is they use GPS two-way comms to track ... it cannot react fast enough to models turning / looping etc. - the camera is too slow to follow the change in direction. it also has difficulty with low altitude as it basically understands that anything under 15m or so is on the ground !! or still above 20m.
The system is fine for slow moving objects to track.
I also am not happy that one function still has not been enabled : dynamic positioning. The camera base cannot be moved once started ... even wind movement will cause it to stop recording and recalibrate. The sales blurb all that time ago showed the unit being moved and still recording ...
I pointed out to Soloshot that DJi and other drones can have dynamic GPS positioning in SMALLER units ... so why cannot they ?

Back to Hobby King ................ their stock and variety as well as prices are still not attractive ... its not the HK of previous ...